Page 20 of Crown of Chaos

Another blade rushed toward me, and I held the toddler out of the way as I swung my other arm, slicing my nails into the throat of another man, forcing him to drop his blade. Bringing the silent creature back in front of me, I lifted him, frowning as blood squirted onto his body and face. Then, smiling victoriously, I realized he’d been protected and bathed. Albeit, in blood, but who cared?

“See, Aria. We’re going to be good mothers! I can totally fight and keep this child alive. It’s easier than I believed it would be,” I announced before chuckling. “I will be great at this, right?” He screamed, and I dropped him, barely catching the boy before he landed headfirst in the dirt. “Let’s keep that last part between us, okay?” I asked, as the tiny human began howling.

“I wonder if it’s too late to change my mind about this whole baby thing. It appreciates nothing I’ve done, and I literally saved him. You are a little, ungrateful, dirty, whiny creature. Oh, eww! Did you poop? This was such a bad idea.” I plugged my nose while the child continued to howl with his displeasure. “If I kill something for you to eat, will you shut up?” I bent to the corpse and ripped off the arm. “Eat,” I explained, putting the limb to my lips and snapping my teeth beside it, showing the urchin what to do. He kept squealing, so I set him down and scowled, becoming more frustrated by the constant noise it made.

It merely screamed more. Dropping the arm, I tapped my foot, realizing I would need Aria to soothe the little monster so it would stop making those horrid sounds. Apparently, he was like the others within this place that lacked brains and didn’t know how good I was at tending to him.

“Aria, we have an issue that I can’t seem to fix,” I groaned in defeat, shaking my leg when the creature wrapped its arms around my thigh. “Eww, it’s touching me again!”

“What did you do here?” a feminine voice inquired, forcing me to turn toward it.

“I tried to feed the boy, but he won’t shut up.” I narrowed my eyes at the woman, noticing that she was dressed how Aria usually was. “Food or friend?” I asked, hoping she’d make it easy and clarify it for me. Instead, her eyes widened, so I rattled to warn her. “If you try to harm me or this ungrateful pest, I will eat you.”

“I understand,” she murmured, as if she feared pissing me off.

“You’re wiser than the ones who lived inside this village. Do you know how to make this thing stop crying? It lacks directions. Aria always says Knox needs instructions, and I suspect he’s much like this boy. Turn it off,” I pressed, shaking my leg again to dislodge the creature.

I surveyed the woman as she dragged the child from my thigh, lifted him, and curled the toddler’s body against hers, making soft noises. My eyes veered to how she cradled him in her arms against her breast. Aurora had done the same when we were little, which had soothed Aria.

“You freed them, didn’t you?” she asked, with salty tears running down her thin, sunken cheeks. She needed to eat the arm more than the urchin did. I considered ripping some meat from my kill and offering it to her, but if she was as squeamish as Aria, it wouldn’t end well.

“Not willingly,” I admitted. “I heard them and was curious as to what was within the building.” I studied the way she responded as I spoke. Typically, people didn’t like my words. Knox especially didn’t enjoy me talking to him. Not that I cared. “Why were they inside the house?”

“The men took them to trade for payment. None of the children are full-bred creatures, which would give their captors the coin they wanted at the lord’s auctions. They also bring enough money at the slaver’s market to keep the landowner rich.”

Blinking slowly, I tilted my head. “This urchin is not yours?”

“No, they sold my child a long time ago. Those men you killed murdered this sweetheart’s mother when she thought to prevent them from taking him.” The woman kept moving hypnotically, which had the creature settling. She was making strange noises between talking, and I scrutinized the toddler as his eyes closed in exhaustion.

“What are you doing to soothe him?” I demanded, striding closer, only to recoil when the smell hit me.

“What do you mean?” She took a step back as if she intended to run from me.

“Do not run, or I will chase you. I immensely enjoy hunting. Even if I cannot kill you, I will catch you.” I sighed in irritation and the woman settled. “You’re moving with him, and he seems—shut up. He isn’t making that obnoxious noise.” The woman stopped, and the boy gave a soft whimper. Immediately, she started swaying from side to side again, and he quieted. “I need to know what you are doing. Aria worries we’ll not be good mothers. You are great at it. I shook him by the ankle, but he didn’t stop screaming. Tell me how you are doing this.”

“You shook this child by the leg?” she asked in a high-pitched squeal.

“Should I have not done that? He didn’t seem to mind, not until I had to toss him in the air to stop the sword from reaching his flesh. I even caught him before he landed on the ground.” Her eyes grew round before she peered at the child, who was sticky and coated in blood.

“No, they’re delicate. You shouldn’t throw them, ever.”

“I caught him, didn’t I?”

“He’s only one year old and it could have hurt him,” she stated.

“But did he die? No. He merely started up with that insufferable noise. Then you came,” I snapped, crossing my arms. “You’re all so ungrateful. I don’t see why Aria wishes to save any of you, truthfully. You are miserable beings who think only of yourselves.”

“That’s called being alive. What are you?” the woman demanded.

“According to this town, I’m a fucking monster,” I hissed, smiling when she rolled her eyes down my delicate frame and then to the dead bodies and parts strewn everywhere.

“You did this by yourself?”

“I am never alone. Aria is with me.”

“And where is she?”

“Right now, she’s sleeping. They shot her with an arrow laced with hemlock, so I made her go into the alone. She sleeps there to heal so that when she wakes, she is powerful once more.”

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